UPDATE, 10:31 a.m. PDT: SpaceShipTwo back on the ground: SS2 back on the ground safely. Thanks to our team for another successful, important test.Photos and details to be posted later today. — Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) April 12, 2013 UPDATE, 10:27 a.m. PDT: Nitrous cold flow successful: Confirmed: SS2’s rocket’s oxidizer flows properly in flight. Today’s “cold flow” flight was a key test before 1st powered flight. Pics soon. — Virgin […]
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Doug Messier
Lee Archambault
LOUISVILLE, CO (SNC PR) — Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) is proud to announce that former NASA astronaut Lee Archambault has joined the Dream Chaser team as a chief systems engineer and test pilot. In his new position, Archambault will be responsible for planning and execution of multiple aspects of Dream Chaser’s flight test programs and the design of the crew interfaces in the Dream Chaser cockpit.
“As a crew member on two Space Shuttle missions to the International Space Station (ISS), I was honored to be part of a great NASA team that has made the United States the leader of manned spaceflight,” said Archambault. “Now, as a member of SNC’s Dream Chaser team, I hope to contribute to the design, development, and test of the next U.S. built and launched crewed spacecraft, providing transportation to the ISS for our astronauts. I believe the Dream Chaser will be the safest, most reliable, and preferred method of travel to and from low Earth orbit for years to come.”
For all of you Google Lunar X Prize fans who have spent the last five years on the edge of your seat wondering who was going to win this slow motion race to the moon (and you know who you are), things got a bit clearer after last week’s global team summit in Chile attended by 20 of the 23 competitors. According to an entry on the prize’s blog, four […]
I really don’t know what to make of this story about NASA cooperating with Bigelow Aerospace to put a habitat on the moon: Business deals don’t get much bigger than this one. Have you ever read a contract that gives a governmental green light to a program to “place a base on the surface of the moon?” Ever see an agreement signed by the U.S. government that declares a specific […]
The Obama Administration has proposed NASA receive $17.71 billion in FY 2014, which is $50 million below what was proposed last year. Due to sequestration, NASA’s actual funding for FY 2013 will be approximately $16.5 billion when the year ends on September 30, so it would represent a $1.2 billion increase.
The new budget proposal is based on the assumption that sequestration will be replaced by what the Administration calls a “balanced deficit reduction” plan that will meet the same deficit cutting goals while avoiding deep cuts in NASA and other agencies. It’s not clear at this point if this is a realistic hope. The Republicans in Congress don’t seem enthused by the Administration’s overall budget plan.
Confused? Don’t feel bad. So am I. And it’s my job to cover this stuff.
An overview of NASA’s budget proposal drawn from the space agency’s briefing materials follows after the break.
WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — The following statement is from NASA Administrator Charles Bolden on the administration’s budget request for the 2014 fiscal year:
“Today, we unveil President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2014 budget request for NASA — a $17.7 billion investment in our nation’s future. Our budget ensures the United States will remain the world’s leader in space exploration and scientific discovery for years to come, while making critical advances in aerospace and aeronautics to benefit the American people.
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Colorado Springs, CO – April 10, 2013 (NanoRacks PR) – NanoRacks announced today it has completed development of a turnkey data solution for experiments on the International Space Station (ISS).
The solution utilizes the Software Toolkit for EthernetLab-Like Architecture (STELLA) developed by The Boeing Company. STELLA is a software toolkit product provided to ISS Payload Developers by Boeing, together with NASA, to significantly aid in the development of the payload software interfaces to ISS Command and Data Handling subsystem.
WASHINGTON, D.C., April 10, 2013 (CSF PR) — Today, the Commercial Spaceflight Federation welcomed the strong continued support for commercial spaceflight in NASA’s proposed FY2014 budget.
Commercial Spaceflight Federation President Michael Lopez-Alegria said, “In the latest NASA budget, NASA and the Administration have continued to support a prompt return of American astronauts to the International Space Station on American vehicles. We are encouraged by the support shown for the Commercial Crew Program, which is now in a critical phase as complete crew transportation systems go through design, build and testing.”
Illustration of an asteroid retrieval spacecraft in the process of capturing a 7-m, 500-ton asteroid. (Image Credit: Rick Sternbach/KISS)
Washington, DC, April 11, 2013 (NSS PR) — The National Space Society (NSS) applauds the new NASA budget item that would provide close to $100 million for a mission to rendezvous with a small asteroid and move it into orbit around the Moon where it could later be visited by astronauts.
“An asteroid capture mission is a tremendously important mission, and one that could not be more relevant to the challenges our civilization faces today,” said Mark Hopkins, Chairman of the NSS Executive Committee. “Robotic asteroid capture is the first step to exploiting the vast material resources of the solar system for a hopeful and prosperous future for mankind.”
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL., April 11, 2013 (Space Florida PR) – Space Florida has completed Phase 1 of its efforts to transform the former Orbiter Processing Facility 3 (OPF-3) at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) into a modern and commercially friendly aerospace facility, now referred to as the Commercial Crew & Cargo Processing Facility (C3PF). This project is the result of a first-of-its-kind partnership between NASA-KSC and Space Florida whereby Space Florida has secured full long-term rights to operate, maintain, and improve the C3PF under purely commercial standards and make it available to commercial tenants.